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Through the multimedia arts, sexual health education, art therapy, and positive leadership development, Girl/Friends gives fifteen girls the unique opportunity to become social justice leaders in both their community and school.
While teenage girls are the most at-risk for sexual violence, they are less likely to press charges, seek medical treatment, or receive counseling than any other group. Girl/Friends is one response to this crisis, for we educate our students (30% of whom are sexual assault survivors) about their legal rights, while pairing them with mentors and working with local advocacy groups, like Planned Parenthood and Victims Rights Advocacy, to train them to become peer leaders and sexual health educators.

I first became familiar with Salamishah Tillet, co-founder of A Long Walk Home, the organization behind Girl/Friends, as a young organizer at NOW who was working to raise awareness about violence against women on college campuses. I was utilizing the film “No!: The Rape Documentary” as an educational tool. Salamishah’s moving, heart wrenching testimony is featured in a section of the film. Sal also spent a considerable amount of time co-writing the accompanying study guide to the film. This guide breaks down how violence in the African American community functions using the lens of intersectionality to deconstruct the film’s great work and provides a road map to having productive conversations about violence and to healing as a survivor.
Like Dororthy Roberts’ Killing the Black Body, her work in this project serves as a reference that I visit and revisit to deeper my understanding of how women of color are impacted by sexism and particularly violence. It’s clear to me that her Summer Institute is another extension of this work. In the spirit of not seeing those who have experienced violence as passive subjects, her project recognizes the agency of survivors and how the power of information about street harassment, rape kits and sexual assault laws can serve as a tool for survivors to resist against aggressors of violence. Finally, I just love how she incorporates artistic mediums such as dance, paintings and photography to give girls a place to channel the pain involved in growing up in a culture saturated with violence against women and girls.
They only have a little over 200 dollars left to raise until they meet their fundraising goal of 9,000 dollars. The money goes to providing girls a stipend while they attend the program. Support young feminists in the struggle against violence and check out the video of last year’s students here:

The groups’ political arm plans to bring scores of students to Capitol Hill on April 29 to lobby for a requirement that the criminal justice system resolve [sexual assault] cases before universities look into them or hand down punishments.

There’s so much wrong here (not the least of which that the fraternity lobby’s proposal directly violates a longstanding civil ...

A few days ago, Germany’s highest court finally struck down a state law that had banned women from wearing headscarves in classrooms. But the decision, a victory after more than a decade of legal and public debate, is sadly an isolated sign of optimism within an increasingly bleak picture of Western countries marginalizing Muslim women for the way they dress.

Earlier this month, France’s women’s minister expressed support for a university-wide headscarf ban, arguing: “I’m not sure the headscarf is part of higher education.” (The fact that she is the country’s secretary for women’s rights is particularly awkward.) Her comments came as former president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed banning female students from wearing headscarves at all French universities. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen ...

A few days ago, Germany’s highest court finally struck down a state law that had banned women from wearing headscarves in classrooms. But the decision, a victory after more than a decade of legal and public ...

Anayvette has over 15 years of experience working with nonprofits and youth. After feeling conflicted about her daughter’s desire to join the local Girl Scouts troop, Anayvette and her co-founder Marilyn Hollinquest created their own organization in Oakland that teaches young girls of color about social justice activism, from radical beauty to the environment and beyond.

The Radical _____ are currently electing their new name with leadership from their girls and ...